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Tag Archives: Underwater

Social Distancing and SCUBA Diving

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This is a newer phrase that has been introduced into our vocabulary. It seems like in a matter of weeks we went from life is normal to the new normal. The new normal, whatever that is. It’s been an interesting ride up to this point and will continue to be with the unknown. Wow, Elsa said it right, “Into the Unknown….” Who would have thought she would be able to predict the future?

I’m not going to bore you with much Coronavirus talk because, seriously if you wanted that, just go to Facebook. It is everywhere. Every perspective you could imagine and wish for.

But here’s a thought… I seriously don’t believe that the virus will last underwater. Underwater? How do you breathe underwater? Well, if you are Harry Potter, you take Gillyweed. Continue reading→

It’s the Little Things… Cozumel Trip

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When diving in Cozumel it’s not always about eagle rays, turtles, moray eels, sharks, or even splendid toadfish. Sometimes it’s the littlest creatures. Those that we see and sometimes even photograph. Sometimes we don’t. Some of the smallest creatures can be amazing. Sometimes animals are overlooked not due to their size but due to being plentiful.

There are divers that carry magnifying glasses to find the really small stuff. There are photographers that specialize in macro photography. Continue reading→

Just going with flow… Cozumel Trip

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Or as we call in the SCUBA diving world,  drift diving.
If you have ever been to diving in Cozumel you’ve probably been drift diving. A very simple description would be, you jump into the ocean and the boat follows you and then picks you up when you are done.  Sometimes you just slowly move along kicking just a bit to get around. Other times you just fly.
Yesterday we were treated to unusually mild currents here in Cozumel.  We took advantage of this and dived a couple of reefs that are seldom dived due to strong currents. We hit La Franseta (misspelled) reef first. We dropped in on a pair of eagle rays that gave a couple of our divers quite show. We had just enough current to keep us moving.

Continue reading→

Just Another Manic Monday… Cozumel Trip… Day 9

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Just in the middle of a dream. We were diving Santa Rosa. But we got in on Cedral Reef.
There’s my tribute to the Bangles. I hope they don’t hold it against me.
We had a pretty manic Monday here in Cozumel. Manic for a dive trip to Cozumel that is. We had the Manati loaded with about as many divers as is comfortable having aboard. Once we arrived at our first dive site we missed our reef and had to swim across the sand to get on track. Once we were over the reef we saw one of the largest spot-fin porcupine fish I’ve ever seen.

Continue reading→

I Wear My Dive Mask at Night… Cozumel Trip… Day 8

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I wear my mask at night, too. In staying with our recent musical blog posts themes.  I love night diving.  Especially here in Cozumel.  Whether it diving from the shore at Hotel Cozumel & Resort, from the dock at Cozumel Marine World, or from the boat at Paradise reef. I really enjoy night diving. You may ask, why jump into the ocean and go diving when it’s dark?  First of all, we start the dive when it’s still light. This makes for a much easier transition from daylight to dark. Instead of just jumping off a boat into the darkness.

The real reason for a night dive is the critters.   You are going to see different creatures and a lot of the daytime… Continue reading→

Almost Valentine’s Day… Cozumel Trip… Day 5

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Its Valentine’s Day. Time to celebrate with one of Dean Martins’s favorite songs,  slightly modified for this dive trip.

See the valve with the black shiny thing, that’s an O-ring (O-ring)

Put your Reg on the tank and make sure it’s all tight, save an O-ring (O-ring)

You can swim you can glide but you’d rather dive on the coral (coral) Continue reading→

No Fumar, Dive Boat Courtesy… Cozumel Trip… Day 4

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Another day of diving in the books.  Today we dove Horseshoe and Cedar Pass.

As usual, our group is on the boat at 5 minutes until 8:00 AM ready for our 8 o’clock departure.  We hang around a couple of more minutes to see if anyone else is coming. If you are on our dive boat 8 o’clock means be on the boat by 5 til 8.   We head back to the pier at the dive shop to pick up more divers, they load up and away we go, only to turn around a few hundred yards into our trip to pick up 1 last, late diver.  She gets on board and we are heading to Horseshoe for dive #1 of the day.

Great swim throughs at Horseshoe, a bit of current, few turtles, and 1 turtle that came down from the surface straight at me.  Really cool video and pics, if I would have had my camera. But lucky our friend Doug Lord has the video. Continue reading→

Waking up in Paradise… Cozumel Trip… Day 3

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As divers and visitors to Mexico, we like to respect and observe the local customs. The siesta is one of the easiest customs to respect.

Waking up twice a day, that’s the way it works for some of in Paradise.  Whether a siesta in a hammock on the beach, or in a lounge chair by the pool, or in the cool comfort of your bed back in your room.

Your dive day in Cozumel starts by waking up maybe around 6ish in the morning. This initial wake up may not always be a full-blown wide awake. You gather your dive gear and trudge down to breakfast for your first meal of the day. Next, we take out gear down to the dock to await the dive boat.  Continue reading→

What to do if… Cozumel Trip… Day 2…

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I have logged almost 2500 dives in my 16 1/2 yrs of diving.  Lots of great memories and great stories.  Today I added to my dive story, but first, we will talk about our dives today.

Dive 1 was Palencar Bricks. 

Lots of cool swim-throughs on this dive.  Doug Lord saw our first Lion Fish on one of the swim-throughs.  Max depth on this dive was  90ft with a dive time of almost an hour.  Visibility was close to 100 feet, slightly better than Beaver Lake, AR. Continue reading→